I am both rational and instinctive. I value self-knowledge and understanding of the world; my ultimate goal is self-improvement and improvement of the world around me. At best, I am focused and methodical; at worst, I am obsessive and amoral.

I'm really glad to see JVL get a column that's more suited to him.. his head is too far in the competetive side of magic for people to really accept him in the historically casually slanted building on a budget. Here, he gets the freedom to talk about his true reasons and interest in playing the game, without the built up expectations associated with his former long running column. I am fine with people being attracted to the game for different reasons.. but JVL on BOAB, took a direction I think constrained his effectiveness with the audience he wanted, was actually addressing, and was effective at reaching. So, um, thanks wizards for putting the right guy in the right position for the audience he was meant for.. but how about a more casual version of BOAB? I think people still want that, and the column could still be a gateway to completetive magic, even if that push wasn't the focus. Take a look at Bennie Smiths articles on Starcity... He's all over the place as far as format, but he has a serious interest in competetive play, even if he suggests decks that are more experimental than team tested and approved. Point being.. Jvl is good at appealing to spike, and I expect him to succeed here.. but I think that there is still a void on this site concerning content... People want another casual column that flirts with competetive magic, but isn't always paying attention to it... like BOAB of yore...

Honestly I like this right where it is, I've been away from regular events for a few months now so getting these kinds of summaries is rather helpful when talking to my friends back home concerning their Magic.

If Soul Sisters has one or two of the sisters out, Splinter Twin's plan becomes almost null and void. (key word almost)

"... Red-Green Tron still seems like the most powerful deck in the format to me. The deck consistently plays extremely dangerous haymakers on the third or fourth turn. I've only had the discomfort of playing against Red-Green Tron a few times, but I felt helpless in every instance. I'd recommend Red-Green Tron or some pure combo deck for this week's Modern events. When formats are mostly undefined it's usually best to go for the most powerful deck."

While GR Tron does put up a lot of numbers...... it is the poorest performing deck considered "top tier*"; getting 4-0 only 8.9% of the times it shows up in the lists. In a large event, such as a GP or PT, it may get you through to the second day, but is a long shot for T8.* I don't consider Fae "top tier"

I don't understand how Splinter Twin "punishes" Soul Sisters. Surely if it makes 1000 creatures that just results in 1000 life gained and still no kill. What am I missing?

(In case it's not obvious - I don't play Modern.)

Pestermite has two power, so if they only have one warden...

On Modo it is my personal experiance that splinter twin is a very favourable matchup for soul sisters Mainly due to the constaints of the client. I often find that i have more than 50 life by the time they have cleared out the wardens to 'go off', making that many guys is a massive time sink, not to mention if you have even 1 zelous persicution you effectivly fog them and double your life.

I am glad JVL is taking our comments to heart to improve his column. It shows that he actually cares what his readers think and is willing to adjust to make this a column that people can truly enjoy week to week.

As for the match reports, I for one would love to see match reports on some 4-0 decks, so long as it does not take away from the analysis of the formats.

Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

I've seen angels fall from blinding heights. But you yourself are nothing so divine. Just next in line.

191752181 wrote:

All I'm saying is, I don't really see how she goes around petrifying swords and boots and especially mirrors. How the heck does she beat a Panoptic Mirror? It makes no sense for artifacts either. Or enchantments, for that matter. "Well, you see, Jimmy cast this spell to flood the mountain, but then the gorgon just looked at the water really hard and it went away."

I definitely enjoyed this article. I try to stay on top of the metagame, so I read a lot of Magic articles online. After a little while, though, they all tend to blur together, as they talk about the exact same builds of the exact same decks, over and over again. I very much like the idea of an article that highlights top-performing decks that may be slightly different than what you normally see. I think that a lot of players netdeck the same decks because they think that's the only way to win. Highlighting all the different ways that players went 4-0 on MTGO is not only interesting, but rather inspiring, offering new and fun ways you could actually build a deck that can perform reasonably.

I don't have a lot of personal time to playtest decks, so I tend to cut out the chaff, and don't bother with decks that look too loose, or like they wouldn't be able to stand up to things like Delver. Hearing that this crazy BW Vengeance deck has actually been putting up numbers online encourages me that it might be worth looking into. It's very encouraging, and keeps players from me from feeling like there aren't many choices of what deck I can play if I hope to do well in the current metagame.

Hearing that this crazy BW Vengeance deck has actually been putting up numbers online encourages me that it might be worth looking into. It's very encouraging, and keeps players from me from feeling like there aren't many choices of what deck I can play if I hope to do well in the current metagame.

JVL has to be very proud of that variant since the monoblack version was in one of his BoaB articles. Nice to see people taking his ideas and improving on them

Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

I've seen angels fall from blinding heights. But you yourself are nothing so divine. Just next in line.

191752181 wrote:

All I'm saying is, I don't really see how she goes around petrifying swords and boots and especially mirrors. How the heck does she beat a Panoptic Mirror? It makes no sense for artifacts either. Or enchantments, for that matter. "Well, you see, Jimmy cast this spell to flood the mountain, but then the gorgon just looked at the water really hard and it went away."

the match reports would be great, but don't make them play-by-play. A general "despite an explosive start of champion of the parish and several gather the townsfolks, the control player was able to use a board wipe to stabilize and then cast an olivia voldaren." would be good for describing a few turns. You don't need to detail every inch.

...While GR Tron does put up a lot of numbers...... it is the poorest performing deck considered "top tier*"; getting 4-0 only 8.9% of the times it shows up in the lists. In a large event, such as a GP or PT, it may get you through to the second day, but is a long shot for T8. ...

And then GR Thin Tron proves me wrong by putting up a string of 4-0 finishes. Well hush my mouth and slap my grandma. Dip me in chocolate and call me an eskimo pie. Feel free to disregard anything I say.

I mentioned this last week, but I think it's a good enough idea to mention it again.

Because this article is specifically about the magic online metagame, you are in an unique position to easily contact players about their 4-0 decklists. Informal interviews or quick questions with players about their decks could provide some serious insight into the format. The answer to the question "why did you play card x instead of y" normally reveals a fact about the metagame that many players may not know. The trick is asking the right questions.

Besides that, It would be nice to see some data analysis. It's tough to collect the good kind of mtgo data, so no hard feelings if it never happens. I would like to see this acknowledged sometime in an article. (I.e, can you tell us if you're up to it?)